The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.69.1

c8.69.1

Various Diseases: As our religious texts do not furnish us with systematic descriptions of the morbid states, the identification of these states is quite often uncertain and generally vague. The references made therein are, in any case, frequently sufficient to enable us to have an idea of the majority of the ailments mentioned therein. Moreover, every time we come across the name of a disease common to the Veda and to the manuals of classical medicine, we can try to apply the classical sense of this name to that passage of the Veda containing it; if this sense fits in well with the context and mainly with various contexts where that name comes in many a time, we have the right to admit that probably that sense is exact. This is the method which was used by Bergaigne for the determination of the sense of the Vedic words.¹ It is true that here it could be objected that the sense of the name of a disease is not at all comparable to a commonplace term. Scientific nosology keeps old terms for an indefinite period of time, but being in progress all the time and subject to ceaseless modifications, it frequently changes the concepts covered by these terms. Various words like “leprosy” or “asthma” have no relation whatsoever with *lepra* or *asthma* [of the Greek language] and it will be false to use them today in the translation of a Greek text without pointing out that they are meant in a sense altogether different than in the actual usage.